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Flynn Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements to FBI

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements to the FBI. He is the fourth person charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election. (Published Friday, Dec. 1, 2017)

What to Know

Flynn was ousted from the Trump administration in February for misleading the White House about conversations with the Russian ambassador

Those conversations also resulted in the plea. "I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong," Flynn said

Flynn has been under investigation for a wide range of allegations, including lobbying work on behalf of Turkey

Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, becoming the first Trump White House official to face criminal charges and admit guilt so far in the wide-ranging election investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Flynn also agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe, which focuses on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible coordination between Russia and Trump's team in the campaign that sent the Republican businessman to the White House.

Flynn spent just 25 days in the White House, but his actions — and the Russia investigations broadly — have shadowed Trump throughout the year, angering the president and repeatedly distracting from his agenda. Flynn's plea came hours before Republican senators hoped to pass a far-reaching tax bill, which would be a significant victory for Trump.

Court papers make clear that Flynn knows the identities of at least two members of Trump's transition team who were intimately aware of his outreach to Russian government officials in the weeks before the inauguration. Mueller's prosecutors did not reveal the names of the officials, but indicated they were senior and within Trump's inner circle.

Those officials discussed the details of what Flynn was supposed to communicate to the Russians about U.S. sanctions imposed by Obama administration. One of the officials, described as a "very senior member" of the presidential transition, also directed Flynn to contact foreign government officials, including Russia's, about a U.N. Security Council resolution regarding Israeli settlements.

The two senior members of the team was Jared Kushner and K.T. McFarland, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Kushner is the "very senior member of the presidential transition team" mentioned in the statement of offense as speaking to Flynn in December about the U.N. resolution regarding Israel, the sources told NBC.

McFarland, who was a senior official on the Presidential Transition Team and would later be sworn-in as deputy national security adviser, is the "senior official" at Mar-a-Lago who conferred by phone with Flynn regarding his conversations with the Russian ambassador about sanctions, according to NBC News.

On Saturday morning, Trump addressed reporters on the South Lawn of the White House and briefly spoke about Flynn's plea, saying he's not concerned. The president repeated that there was no collusion with Russia.

He later tweeted: "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"

Flynn visited his son's house in Virginia shortly after he entered his guilty plea.

Flynn was an early and vocal Trump supporter on the campaign trail and was present for consequential moments in the campaign, the following transition period and the early days of Trump's presidency, making him a valuable potential tool for prosecutors and agents. His business dealings and foreign interactions have made him a central focus of Mueller's investigation.

Trump's former national security adviser admitted to lying about his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the United States during the transition period before Trump's inauguration.

In a statement, Flynn, a 58-year-old retired Army lieutenant general, said he accepted responsibility for his actions and added: "My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel's Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country."

Flynn is the fourth former Trump associate to face charges in the investigation, the first who actually served in Trump's White House. He has been under investigation for a wide range of allegations, including lobbying work on behalf of Turkey, but the fact that he was charged only with a single count of false statements suggests he is cooperating with Mueller in exchange for leniency.

White House lawyer Ty Cobb sought to distance the plea from Trump himself, saying, "Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn."

Flynn's Court Exit a Throwback to 2016 'Lock Her Up' Speech

Demonstrators at the scene of the Washington, D.C. courtroom where Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI chanted "lock him up," as he left the area. They were invoking a 2016 speech Flynn gave at the Republican National Convention, where he chanted "lock her up" in regards to Hillary Clinton's email controversy.

(Published Friday, Dec. 1, 2017)

Early on in is administration, Trump had taken a particular interest in the status of the Flynn investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey, whose firing in May precipitated the appointment of Mueller as special counsel, has said Trump had asked him in a private Oval Office meeting to consider ending the investigation into Flynn. Comey has said the encounter unnerved him so much that he prepared an internal memo about it. The White House has denied that assertion.

Comey tweeted a Bible passage Friday morning: "But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

Flynn, who was interviewed by the FBI just days after Trump's inauguration, was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about whether he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. Administration officials said Flynn had not discussed sanctions that had been imposed on Russia in part over election meddling. In charging Flynn, prosecutors made clear they believe that claim to be false.

Days after Flynn's interview with the FBI, then-acting attorney general, Sally Yates alerted White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was potentially compromised and vulnerable to blackmail because of discrepancies between public assertions — including by Vice President Mike Pence — that Flynn and Kislyak had not discussed sanctions and the reality of what occurred.

Mueller's team announced charges in October against three other Trump campaign officials, former chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates, and a former campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his own foreign contacts.

Signs of Flynn cooperating with Mueller's team surfaced in the past week, as his lawyers told the legal team they could no longer discuss information about the case with them. Scheduled grand jury testimony regarding Flynn was also postponed by prosecutors.

Trump: Flynn 'Was Just Doing His Job'

President Donald Trump said he believed Michael Flynn "was just doing his job" as a then-incoming national security advisor to the White House when he called a Russian minister. Trump maintained that Flynn was fired for misleading Vice President Mike Pence.

(Published Friday, Feb. 17, 2017)

The two-page charging document makes reference to two separate conversations with Kislyak, and to separate false statements prosecutors say he made regarding that communication.

Besides a Dec. 29 conversation about sanctions, prosecutors also cite an earlier December meeting, in which Flynn asked Kislyak to delay or defeat a U.N. Security Council resolution. That appears to refer to the body's vote a day later to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In a striking rupture with past practice, the Obama administration refrained from vetoing the condemnation, opting instead to abstain. The rest of the 15-nation council, including Russia, voted unanimously against Israel.

At the time, Israel was lobbying furiously against the resolution and President-elect Trump's team spoke up on behalf of the Jewish state. Trump personally called Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to press the case against the condemnation, and Egypt surprisingly postponed the scheduled showdown on Dec. 22 — the same day Flynn met Kislyak.

After more procedural wrangling, the vote occurred a day later.

Trump almost immediately condemned the U.N. result via Twitter.

Russia Investigation Heats Up as Mueller Convenes Grand Jury

The Wall Street Journal reports Special Counsel Robert Mueller has put together a grand jury to look into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. "The Russia story is a total fabrication. What the prosecutors should be looking at are Hillary Clinton's 33-thousand deleted emails," declared President Donald Trump.

(Published Friday, Aug. 4, 2017)

"As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th," Trump said, referencing his upcoming inauguration.